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aggregated blogs on ruby:New site

Ruby Freak

9/12/2006 9:15:00 PM


We have recently launched a site which collects blogs and aggregates
them . Please check out the blogs on ruby on rails.

http://softlogger.com/tags/Ruby-on-Rails/1-9/Ruby-on-Rails-Art...

We have released the beta version and working day and night :) for
final release .Looking forward to your valuable suggestion and feedback




--
Posted via http://www.ruby-....
9 Answers

Rick Hansman

9/13/2006 12:44:00 AM

0


This is indeed an excellent site with some nice collection of blogs.
Great going guys!

--
Posted via http://www.ruby-....

Ezra Zygmuntowicz

9/13/2006 3:46:00 AM

0


On Sep 12, 2006, at 5:44 PM, Rick Hansman wrote:

>
> This is indeed an excellent site with some nice collection of blogs.
> Great going guys!
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-....
>


Astroturf much? Sites like this seem a little shady to me. They
aggregate blog posts but keep the user captive when they click thru
to read a post. And there is no clear link to the original authors
blog post.

-Ezra

Gene Tani

9/13/2006 4:24:00 AM

0


Ezra Zygmuntowicz wrote:
> Astroturf much? Sites like this seem a little shady to me. They
> aggregate blog posts but keep the user captive when they click thru
> to read a post. And there is no clear link to the original authors
> blog post.
>
> -Ezra

well, they seemed to have added a "BY:" link to the original content,
but this reminds me that we're in Web 2.1, the age of Dappit and
Anthracite, where you don't have to ask nicely anymore.

Kev Jackson

9/13/2006 4:47:00 AM

0

> Astroturf much? Sites like this seem a little shady to me. They
> aggregate blog posts but keep the user captive when they click thru
> to read a post. And there is no clear link to the original authors
> blog post.
>

Agreed, the link should be direct to the original content, not to a
screen-scraped version. Less Is Better for example is missing part of
the content as the format of the aggregation site is different from
the original site.

I also feel it's a little bit dishonest to build a site that makes
money from other people's work

my 2d

Kev

James Britt

9/13/2006 5:37:00 AM

0

Gene Tani wrote:
> Ezra Zygmuntowicz wrote:
>
>> Astroturf much? Sites like this seem a little shady to me. They
>>aggregate blog posts but keep the user captive when they click thru
>>to read a post. And there is no clear link to the original authors
>>blog post.
>>
>>-Ezra
>
>
> well, they seemed to have added a "BY:" link to the original content,
> but this reminds me that we're in Web 2.1, the age of Dappit and
> Anthracite, where you don't have to ask nicely anymore.
>

Oh, but the possibilities for big mirth are endless.

Detect the IP of the content snarfer, and serve back, um, *custom*
content, just for them.

Make it a Ruby Quiz.


--
James Britt

http://www.ru... - Ruby Help & Documentation
http://www.artima.c... - The Journal By & For Rubyists
http://www.rub... - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff
http://www.jame... - Playing with Better Toys

Rick Hansman

9/13/2006 5:14:00 PM

0

I saw the site do have a direct link to "original content" at the
bottom of the post , I think they are providing user to find their
relevance , and then visit the original for detail..
-hansman

Ezra Zygmuntowicz wrote:
> On Sep 12, 2006, at 5:44 PM, Rick Hansman wrote:
>
>>
>> This is indeed an excellent site with some nice collection of blogs.
>> Great going guys!
>>
>> --
>> Posted via http://www.ruby-....
>>
>
>
> Astroturf much? Sites like this seem a little shady to me. They
> aggregate blog posts but keep the user captive when they click thru
> to read a post. And there is no clear link to the original authors
> blog post.
>
> -Ezra


--
Posted via http://www.ruby-....

Richard Turner

9/13/2006 6:24:00 PM

0


if you don't understand the purpose and usefulness of a blog aggregation
,then either read this
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163105127&...
http://napsterization.org/stories/archives/0...
http://www.cabalamat.org/weblog/a...
or forget about it

> Agreed, the link should be direct to the original content, not to a
> screen-scraped version. Less Is Better for example is missing part of
> the content as the format of the aggregation site is different from
> the original site.
>
> I also feel it's a little bit dishonest to build a site that makes
> money from other people's work
>
> my 2d
>
> Kev


--
Posted via http://www.ruby-....

Jacob Fugal

9/13/2006 7:46:00 PM

0

On 9/13/06, Richard Turner <richardturner_2@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Agreed, the link should be direct to the original content, not to a
> > screen-scraped version. Less Is Better for example is missing part of
> > the content as the format of the aggregation site is different from
> > the original site.
> >
> > I also feel it's a little bit dishonest to build a site that makes
> > money from other people's work
>
> if you don't understand the purpose and usefulness of a blog aggregation
> ,then either read this
> http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163105127&...
> http://napsterization.org/stories/archives/0...
> http://www.cabalamat.org/weblog/a...
> or forget about it

Blog aggregation is fine. I'm subscribed to several (and you could
even say that the reader itself is an "aggregation" of sorts). I think
the point that some have made has to do more with *how* it is
aggregated. Usually, an aggregator will display the summary out of an
RSS feed, then have the post title link to the original content.

softlogger.com, on the other hand, does its best to keep people on
their site. When you click the title link to go from the summary to
the full content, they don't redirect you to the original content, but
rather display the content in their own site, scraped from the
author's site. In addition, there is *no* direct link to the original
content. There *is* a link to the original author's main page, but not
to the article itself.

The effects of this are several.

1a) If the author includes advertising content on their site to
support their writing, that content is bypassed because the readers
are never directed through to the original site.

1b) softlogger.com, however, *does* have advertising content on their
site. Keeping visitors on their site instead of flowing them through
to the original content increases their ad revenue. This might be seen
as subverting the author's content to make money for softlogger.com

2) When the content is displayed outside the original setting, some
might be lost. Kevin pointed this out with respect to the "Less is
Better" feed. If someone is publishing the full content in their feed
as the summary, go ahead and display that. But don't scrape it off
their site.

3) Search engine rankings and other such ratings are skewed. By
displaying scraped content in their site -- especially without an
direct link back to the original content -- softlogger.com gains rank
for search terms related to content that someone else wrote. If
intentional, this is probably designed to increase their search
ranking and drive more traffic to the site, thus generating more ad
revenue.

I don't know if these are the motives of softlogger.com. I'm willing
to give them the benefit of the doubt that they're just trying to make
something cool and didn't consider these consequences.

Jacob Fugal

Rick DeNatale

9/13/2006 9:19:00 PM

0

On 9/13/06, Richard Turner <richardturner_2@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> if you don't understand the purpose and usefulness of a blog aggregation
> ,then either read this
> http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163105127&...
> http://napsterization.org/stories/archives/0...
> http://www.cabalamat.org/weblog/a...
> or forget about it

But also see:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.09/s...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
http://www.blogmaverick.com/2005/08/15/a-splog-here-a-splog-there-pretty-soon-it-ads-...
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,693...

I'm not sure wheter softloggger qualifies as a splog or not, but I'm suspicious.

Heck, I just spent most of the day carefully crafting an entry on my
blog, by hand.

--
Rick DeNatale

My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denh...